Andrew Hughes, a former researcher with RTE, Ireland’s national broadcasting service, uncovered details of a horrific murder while researching his non-fiction book Lives Less Ordinary: Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Square, 1798-1922.

He spun that research into a stunning tale, written as a prison memoir told by a narrator who describes his descent from poor university student to murderer in Victorian Dublin -- a city awash at the time in poverty, corruption, violence, and political unrest.

The Convictions of John Delahunt is skilfully crafted and beautifully written, with a compelling back story woven into the fabric of the narrative. It’s evocatively rich with depth and detail of 1840s Dublin, from the gentility of an afternoon stroll through Merrion Square to the brutality of Dublin after dark. The narrator uses vivid descriptions and a touch of sly, disparaging humour to draw the reader into the dark corners of his shadowy world.

This book is disturbing, there’s no doubt that. But I recently spent some time in Dublin, so some of the places John Delahunt mentions as his story unfolds -- Trinity College, Kilmainham Gaol, Dame Street, the Castle – are familiar to me. In this hard-to-put-down book, John Delahunt shows me a different Dublin – this one lit by the glow of gas street lamps along the banks of the River Liffey.